Nadar Ensemble was founded in 2006 by a group of young musicians sharing a mutual interest and passion for contemporary music. The name for the ensemble was chosen as a reference to the real Nadar: the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820-1910), whose multi-disciplinary-ism and adventurous spirit the ensemble wishes to portray. The historical Nadar was a well-known photographer and balloonist, and also quite accomplished as a caricaturist, a spy, an art critic and much more. He regularly organized informal “salons” at which his contemporaries, artists, thinkers, writers and scientists were invited; thus creating a cross-disciplinary dialogue. Nadar Ensemble has performed upon invitation at several important concert halls and festivals, both nationally and internationally. Examples include the Ars Musica in Brussels, Handelsbeurs in Ghent, deSingel in Antwerp, De Bijloke in Ghent, TRANSIT in Leuven, Concertgebouw Bruges, Harvest Festival in Denmark, the Internationale Ferienkurse für neue Musik Darmstadt (2010, 2012, 2014), Festival Musica in Strasbourg, Tzlil Meudcan in Tel Aviv, Blurred Edges in Hamburg, Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival and the Donaueschinger Musiktage (2012, 2015), Acht Brücken in Köln, Forum Neue Musik Deutschlandradio, Tage fur Neue Musik in Zürich, Ultima Oslo, Muffathalle in München, Porgy and Bess in Wien, Open Music in Graz, Nowy Teatr in Warsaw, and Platforma in Moscow.

Since 2010, Nadar coproduces a Summer Academy for young musicians (14+) in Sint-Niklaas, together with MATRIX [New Music Centre]. In 2015, this project was nominated for a YEAH! Award.

In the summer of 2014, the ensemble has performed for the third time at the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik Darmstadt (works by Stefan Prins and Michael Maierhof, in a project curated with American-Iraqi artist Wafaa Bilal). Recently, the ensemble premiered “RECHT”, a music theater piece by Hannes Seidl and Daniel Kötter in Frankfurt (Mousonturm), Ghent (De Bijloke) and Berlin (MaerzMusik). Nadar performs new pieces by Stefan Prins and Michael during the 2015 Donaueschinger Musiktage.

Recently, NEOS released a live recording of Nadar’s 2012 concert at the Donaueschinger Musiktage with works by Kreidler, Prins, Pasovsky and Schedl. “EXIT F” by Michael Maierhof for four hot-air balloons and ensemble is released on Migrorecords, and “Fremdkörper #1” by Stefan Prins was released on a monographic CD on the label Sub Rosa. Nadar’s recording of “In Hyper Intervals” will be featored on Johannes Kreidler’s upcoming portrait CD at Wergo. Over the past 10 years, Nadar has premiered more than 30 pieces by composers such as Martin Schüttler, Johannes Kreidler, Jorge Sánchez-Chiong, Alexander Schubert, Daan Janssens, Stefan Prins, Vladimir Gorlinsky, Michael Maierhof, Malin Bang, Matthias Kranebitter and Dmitri Kourliandski. www.nadarensemble.be

New music has its typical performance resources: a chamber ensemble of soloists, most often comprising from five to fifteen different instruments. The ensemble has shaped the sound of the musical avant-garde in the past 40 years; the more new, young ensembles today try to go beyond that sound, the more clearly this can be heard.

Associated with the development of the ensemble are the beginnings of professional contemporary music performance. The first generation of such ensembles was founded in the 1970s and 1980s – at the same time as the first early music ensembles. The pioneers were England’s London Sinfonietta (1968), France’s Ensemble intercontemporain (1976), Germany’s Ensemble Modern (1980) and ensemble recherche (1985), as well as Austria’s Klangforum Wien (1985). These were the first groups prepared to devote themselves to performing exclusively works by contemporary composers, who themselves often founded and conducted groups. Ensemble intercontemporain was founded and led by Pierre Boulez; and Klangforum Wien, by Beat Furrer. Today, these ensembles are the most experienced groups performing new music; they give several dozen world premières annually and set the generally-recognized standards of interpretation. For years, they have enabled the development and systematization of new performance techniques, as well as shaping the characteristic sound of new music. The contemporary ensemble scene is almost an entirely separate culture!

Meanwhile, people speak today of a new generation of contemporary music ensembles. The young groups differ from their predecessors in sound, repertoire selection and openness to new – often extramusical – contexts. The catalyst for the change of generation and aesthetic language has been the digital revolution, which has created a new reality for the functioning of music in social space. One of the most distinctive ensembles of the younger generation is Belgium’s Nadar Ensemble.

The musicians shape their own unique, original sound with the aid of new media. They invest in various electronic gadgets, which they make available to composers. The boundary between acoustic and electronic music was erased a long time ago, although for first-generation ensembles, this is of decidedly lesser importance.

Also different is the relationship of young performers to the musical text. So-called ‘score positivism’ excludes such subjective moments as the physicality of sound, the gesture or theatrical charm of music, not to mention multimedia and direct interaction. Many modern compositional strategies cannot be written down in a traditional manner. The musicians of the Nadar Ensemble are not only good performers; they must also be superb performance artists!

Finally, the Belgian group’s specialty is conceptually polished, out-of-the-box concert programs. The Nadar Ensemble’s concerts are characterized by a distinct dramaturgical plan, as well as a clearly-expressed message. Instead of just subjecting works to aesthetic delectation, the musicians try to tell the world something by means of them.

This is the concept behind the concert program entitled Doppelgänger, which redefines a popular figure abounding with meanings (most often negative) in the context of a new multimedia reality. With the aid of acoustic and visual media, it explores the identity of sound and image, as well as the listener’s perception. The concert program, along with the individual works comprising it, revolves around the question of what is real and what is virtual. Where does the border between the worlds run? Can virtuality be more real than reality?

The program begins, somewhat perversely, with Georges Méliès’ L’Homme orchestre, a silent film from 1900, over a century old, showing an orchestra of doppelgängers. This historical element leads to successive, now thoroughly contemporary musical analogues of the doppelgänger figure.

The live performance of Serge Verstockt’s À la recherche de temps by a clarinetist is expanded and multiplied by 16 audiovisual recordings of this performance; it explores the identity of music, as well as its boundaries.

In Simon Steen-Andersen’s Study for String Instrument #3, an image and its reflection are superimposed upon each other. The ’cellist, as it were, plays with his/her own doppelgänger, and the sounds deceive the listener, who is attempting to figure out where exactly the sound is being produced.

The blurring of the border between the real and the virtual achieves its apogee in Stefan Prins’ work Generation Kill – offspring 1, inspired by computer games and their relationship to contemporary military technology. It also shows how the world is viewed by the digital generation, which does not differentiate real and virtual reality.

Among generation of digital natives are Simon Steen-Andersen and Stefan Prins, as well as Alexander Schubert, who utilizes new media with bravado and brilliance in his work entitled Sweet Anticipation, expanding the percussion section with sensors, live electronics and video.

In turn, in Michael Maierhof’s work entitled Shopping 4, three prepared balloons are used as musical instruments. The musicians play them with tape, sponges and pins, in this way creating a sound world deceptively similar to the sound of electronic music.

This program fully expresses the aesthetic interests of the Nadar Ensemble, founded in 2006, as well as justifying its name, which is the pseudonym of Gaspard-Félix Tournachon (1820–1910) – a multimedia artist, as well as a great lover of balloon flights!